Brady Taylor Flips to Ohio State

And here I thought the first bit of news in the morning would be the announcement of the new o-line coach. Instead, Hokies verbal, offensive tackle Brady Taylor, committed to Ohio State.

Taylor was in Columbus for an official visit this past weekend which took place two weeks after receiving a scholarship offer from his hometown team. Many recruitniks believed Taylor would flip on his visit. He didn't. However, it was reported yesterday. he'd return today with his mom to speak with Urban Meyer.

Virginia Tech OL commit Brady Taylor (Columbus Ohio) will be back up to Ohio State with his mother tomorrow to talk to Urban Meyer.— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) January 20, 2014

Brady Taylor's mother wasn't able to go on the visit this weekend, so she wants to speak with the coaches herself.— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) January 20, 2014

The chance to live out a dream seems like it should lend to a quick decision, but Taylor - despite his affection for Ohio State - struggled with the reality that hed have to go back on his word and letting the Hokies coaching staff, particularly Virginia Tech offensive line coach Jeff Grimes. That worry was alleviated slightly when Grimes left first, taking a job in the same position with LSU. He also had some initial concerns about how soon he could get on the field at Ohio State, but in the end staying home and playing for the Buckeyes was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

"(At first) I (was worried about) early playing time," he said about what prevented him from making a "flip" when the offer first came. "(It was also about) just getting a better feel for the coaches, I hadn't been around them a lot."

Leading up to his visit to Ohio State, Taylor had still planned on making a return trip to Virginia Tech, but with his commitment to Ohio State, he says that will no longer happen.

Comments

Can't really say I'm surprised. When OSU offers you when they're in your back yard AND the OL coach that recruited you leaves the school you committed to you take it. Oh well. Hopefully this is the only one.

Totally agree. Seems like most of us here understand that these are 18 year old kids and that this is usually the biggest decisions of their young lives - I wish nothing but the best for the guy and hope he does well at OSU (just not when we play them!).

Its a kid and all you can ask for is for him to be honest, granted we all saw this coming it was nice for him to go out in twitterworld/public and announce it. You can't blame a kid for following a dream he had at a young age.

True...but I can be critical of him for not following through in his promise to visit. It is an indicator of character in my opinion, "dream school" or not. We all knew he would take the visit, but it would have been nice to be surprised with a high-charcter decision on occasion.

Yep, everything here was done in the light of day. I don't see how that reflects poorly on the kid's character. We always knew he loved tOSU. The reason VT got the commitment was because tOSU hadn't offered him and we represented a good alternative. Nothing shady about that.

Because he didn't follow through on his promise after the initial impulse wore off....the very definition of character. I don't think he is bad kid and I understand his choice, but I would have made sure my son fulfilled his promise...assuming the coaches still wanted him to come.

So if your dream was to go to Med School and you didn't initially get it, and accepted a job after you thought it wouldn't happen. Then you get bumped off the wait list and they offer you admission you think they should turn it down?

I'm sure if OSU offered him before he accepted our offer he would have taken it right away or after a visit.

But at that point, which shows better character: (1) fulfilling a promise just to waste everyone's time or (2) changing your mind honestly and being up front about it? I also don't understand the "initial impulse" thing. We offered him last summer, he committed after a while and visited back in September. This would not have been his first visit and I have certainly seen far worse recruiting processes where the recruit strings the school along.

He was upfront and honest about it. We always knew if THEEEEEEEEE (pretentious d-bags of) Ohio State offered, he'd likely be gone because it was his hometown school of which he's always dreamed of playing for. I can't fault him at all for it, and I appreciate the fact that he even gave us a chance in the beginning, especially after seeing the complete and utter cluster Newsome left our OL to be.

Be thankful he didn't lead us on til signing day before flipping. We now have plenty of time to find someone else to bring in, and considering the rumors of who the new OL coach will be, I wouldn't be too worried about the future.

Plus, if you're going to throw Taylor under the bus for this, then you have to throw our QB commit of Durkin under the bus as well, as he was a firm Michigan State commit before Loeffler turned him. In fact, him flipping to us is far more of a shocker than Taylor doing this now.

After five minutes of serious contemplation, I think the problem with the whole system is the term "verbal commitment." If they used a different term that better reflected how students AND COACHES think of verbals, the rest of us wouldn't get so flustered. It's funny that the actual commitment is called a "letter of intent." That's all a verbal commitment really is -- a statement of intent.

"Our job as coaches is to influence young people's lives for the better in terms of fundamental skills, work ethic, and doing the right thing. Every now and again, a player actually has that effect on the coaching staff." Justin Fuente on Sam Rogers

If I had to trade a flip...right now I would actually take Durkin over Taylor.
I know we need OL's, but getting a big, strong, mobile QB like Durkin might pay off big down the road.
The guy is a beast of a QB.

I would just like to point out that "Virginia" is spelled correctly on our diplomas, unlike another school in the region.

"Our job as coaches is to influence young people's lives for the better in terms of fundamental skills, work ethic, and doing the right thing. Every now and again, a player actually has that effect on the coaching staff." Justin Fuente on Sam Rogers

I think it's more of indicator of his character in a good way that he didn't go on the visit after his mind was made up. he was quick and to the point not really wasting anyone's time, money, or effort after he visited OSU and made up his mind.

He's a kid going to his dream school in the city he grew up in and I don't fault him for that at all. Also remember the guy that was recruiting him left, I definitely wish he would've stayed a VT commit but I can see his perspective.

As far as VT goes it then becomes very important to recruit an OT in 2015 since it seems all the other linemen recruited are interior guys. VT loses Brent Benedict, Shuman, and Gibson at OT after next season so need to add OT depth. VT does have young OTs such as McLaughlin, Wyatt Teller, and Parker Osterloh but that would leave VT really thin on OTs in 2015.

Yep, if Teller can become the potential that French sees and McLaughlin takes the next step forward this isnt a big deal. And who knows, maybe the next OL coach (Searels probably) has someone that he has been scouting that he can close in the next 2 weeks. I doubt it but you never know. Wish Taylor all the best.

Yeah, Reign of Terror implies he was purposely screwing up rather than just being incompetent. I prefer Reign of Error and actually plan on using that at work tomorrow about one of our division chiefs who regularly, when given the option, makes the WORST possible decision, the one designed to inflict the most pain on everyone while reducing productivity as much as possible. It's almost uncanny.

You are assuming he actually made decisions. I always thought he just threw labeled darts at a board blindfolded and went with a starting lineup of which darts finished closer to the double 12, because he was different like that.

Interesting. Bill King was suggesting that Mack Brown could have built better OL recruiting classes by throwing darts at a list of TX players. I think the emphasis was more on Mack's philosophy than any reflection on his OL coach.

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-What we do is, if we need that extra push, you know what we do? -Put it up to fully dipped? -Fully dipped. Exactly. It's dork magic.

Don't really consider this a "flip". When we first got his commitment, it was already known that if OSU offers, he would go. Now that he got the offer he wanted, and the coach recruiting him is gone, seems like a no brainer.

Just thought I mention that UVA also lost an Offensive Tackle this past week when 3/4 star Will Richardson flipped to NC State.
Read UVA guys having a conversation saying now they only have 13 or 14 OL on the depth chart including the incoming class. In comparison, I counted 20 for us.